Adrian Hoppel reveals how working for free made him 'richer' than ever

ADRIAN Hoppel gave up working for a salary two years ago. He reckons he's not only happier for it, but has more work than ever. Here's how.

The family man pictured on honeymoon with wife Angela and in the Rockies and Montana in 1998. Picture: Facebook

A MAN who gave up working for a salary says it's the best thing he's ever done and that offering his services as gifts has actually made him "richer" than ever.

Web designer Adrian Hoppel, who decided working a traditional job was "toxic" began operating within a "gift economy" about two years ago.

And while it may sound unrealistic or hard to believe that someone doesn't charge for their services, Mr Hoppel reckons he's got more work than ever.

Instead he says that what he has gained is far more valuable than any wage or salary.

Writing in his blog, the family man reveals how working 'in gift' doesn't mean he works for free but rather shows "people trust me to build them a website, and I trust them to support my work as they believe fair."

In other words, he builds a website for someone as a gift. The person receiving it thinks about what the finished project was worth and chooses something fair to give back to him.

That could be in the form of cash, material items, advertising or even invitations to events.

"There would be no contracts, no negotiating, no pressure," he explains.

To him, trust and helping each other became his goal and purpose without worrying about profit margins or return on investments.

"Establishing a community who believed in me and what I was doing became the goal, without worry over profit margins, because eventually I received the most important gift of all: a true faith in people to be honest, fair, generous, and supportive," he writes.

Mr Hoppel, who had worked in the corporate world for more than a decade, told The Huffington Post, he had the big role, the fancy title, expense accounts and fancy suits, but that he felt hollowed out and bitter.

Having always wanted to work for himself, he said he finally made the move to begin working in the gift economy after reading Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein.

While admitting the ideas blew his mind, the concept of working in a gift economy was scary because he feared people would take advantage of him - but he was proved very wrong.

While most risk is placed on the buyers of a service, Mr Hoppel made the decision to put all the risk onto him which meant people could in effect not give him anything in return for his services.

Thinking it may end in disaster, he only told his Facebook friends about his project thinking he would only do one or two websites a year in this way.

The father of four reckons his life is richer after making the switch from the corporate world. Picture: Facebook

What actually happened next surprised even him, as his little experiment turned into a full-time job in a matter of months, with 22 websites completed in 2012 alone.

He goes on to say that after six to nine months he had enough work to support his family as word-of-mouth spread and his support base grew massively.

The father-of-four also admits his project would have got off the ground much earlier if he hadn't been so sceptical.

"For me, I had 2-3 champions that I knew already on Facebook who really bought into what I was doing, gave me work, promoted me to other people, and that got the ball rolling," he writes.

"This was really they key to getting things off the ground.

"But the reason it spread so fast is because, as I alluded to above, the Gift Economy changes the entire business relationship."

The Philadelphia man said it worked because it placed all the risk on him rather than the clients who were given the website with no strings attached.

This built trust in people who then recommended him to others for work and the biggest lesson he has learnt is that any gift-based business needs a community around it to help it grow.

But he stops short of advising people to quit the day job just yet, instead he suggests testing the waters first.

"Don't be surprised if it becomes so big that you have no time for anything else, because that is what happened to me," he writes.

Still confused as to how he gets paid?

He explains most people do actually give him cash because it's easiest, but it's not an exact science and gets gifts ranging from free advertising to cash and services.

He told The Huffington Post, projects have varied from $600 to $3800, with some taking 10-15 hours, and others 80.

"When I am putting together a proposal stating what I am going to do and how many hours it will take me to do it, I offer a range that most freelance web designers charge, roughly about $35 to $90 an hour; it's not an exact science. I know web designers who actually charge a lot more than that, but I think that range is probably pretty close," he explains.

"When people gift me in cash, they basically look at the number of hours I spent, and multiply that by whatever feels like a fair number in that range."

But if you think things are going to slow down for him, then think again.

Since his story has come to light, the modest dad admits even he is bemused by all the attention he and his project have received.

Writing on his Facebook page, he reveals: "You know, all of this attention makes me want to pull the blanket up over my head and go to sleep for two days; that is the effect it has on me.

"But, ironically, I can't because now I have even more work to do."

The family man pictured on honeymoon with wife Angela and in the Rockies and Montana in 1998. Picture: Facebook